MISTAKES ARE GOOD!
Now you probably just read that and thought to yourself "how can making mistakes be good if the moment is so embarrassing?" Well I thought this too, but believe it or not making mistakes makes your brain smarter. If a student makes a mistake there is opportunity for brain growth and deeper understanding because they don't have this previous knowledge. Why else would they have made a pencil with an eraser on the end? TO MAKE MISTAKES !! Mistakes are supposed to be encouraged within the classroom, not frowned upon and labeled negatively. When a student is continuously getting every question correctly they are not growing their brain or challenging themselves to learn something new. Students label this work as being "easy" because they are putting no thought or effort into it.
Now take this theory into the gym, when you want your arms or legs to get bigger and stronger, you continuously challenge yourself through different types of exercises and lifting different amounts of weights. No one goes to the gym and continuously repeats only the exercises they find easy to do or using the weights they find easy to lift. If someone were to do this, they would see no progress. People need to challenge themselves and work through it!!
Now take this theory into the gym, when you want your arms or legs to get bigger and stronger, you continuously challenge yourself through different types of exercises and lifting different amounts of weights. No one goes to the gym and continuously repeats only the exercises they find easy to do or using the weights they find easy to lift. If someone were to do this, they would see no progress. People need to challenge themselves and work through it!!
Making mistakes also shows that the student is taking ownership of their work by trying to solve it themselves through different possible solutions. This is where students will start to figure out what works and what does not work for them. Also, the best part about making mistakes is the amazing feeling you get after finally solving the question that was making your life miserable for the x amount of hours. Now if your reading this and disagree with this statement, you are lying to yourself. That moment of achievement is amazing and suddenly you can look that question in the eye and say "YOU CAN'T INTIMIDATE ME ANYMORE!"
The video below is great because celebrities such as Ariana Grande, Drake, athletes such as Shaquille O'Neal and authors such as Gary Vaynerchuk talk about needing mistakes to learn and move forward. Showing students videos of individuals that they may look up to or know may allow students to make that connection and want to continue to take risks to making mistakes.
Remember, Making mistakes is just a workout for your brain!
The video below is great because celebrities such as Ariana Grande, Drake, athletes such as Shaquille O'Neal and authors such as Gary Vaynerchuk talk about needing mistakes to learn and move forward. Showing students videos of individuals that they may look up to or know may allow students to make that connection and want to continue to take risks to making mistakes.
Remember, Making mistakes is just a workout for your brain!
Nicolina,
ReplyDeleteI love your blog post! It's very funny to read and I agree with so many of your statements. I really like the point you made about pencils having erasers so that we are able to make mistakes.
I also really enjoy your analogy about working out at the gym. In order to get stronger we must push ourselves to work harder and to grow our muscles we have to try to do things that challenge them. Our brain works the same way, we have to do things that push and challenge our brains in order to make it stronger and to make it grow.
Also, such a good video choice, students will definitely be able to connect to it with all of the celebrity appearances.
Great job Nicolina!!
- Paula
I'm glad you enjoyed my post and agreed with many of my statements. I think analogies are great to share with students so they can compare it to something!
DeleteThanks again Paula!
I love how you connected learning from mistakes to physical fitness! As you said, it is important to work our brain the way we need to work our muscles in new and more challenging ways. I also like your mention to the emotional connection students can have towards mistakes and changing the focus from negative to a positive feeling of accomplishment!
ReplyDeleteThanks Charlene, your comment is greatly appreciated!
DeleteNicolina, I absolutely loved your blog post this week, students will be able to relate and grow from all that you wrote and explained! I feel as though students will appreciate the pencils remark as I never even thought about erasers in that sense. Mistakes truly are a great thing to make because like you said it allows opportunity for brain growth and deeper understanding which will forever be beneficial to students. Finally, fabulous video choice!! The celebrity appearances I think will allow for even more connection making to the idea that making mistakes is OKAY!!
ReplyDeleteGreat job!
- Rachel
Thank you so much Rachel, I'm glad you enjoyed my post! I also think students would connect better with some of the celebrity appearances in the video that I posted since they have such an impact in the media these days. It's nice for students to see someone they look up to admit that it is ok to make mistakes.
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